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OTTAWA—Retired general and senator Roméo Dallaire says Canadians can’t just assume the United States will shoot down a missile heading toward Canada, and that it is time for this country to finally embrace continental missile defence.

“Canada should join the ballistic missile defence program,” Dallaire said Thursday. “We currently cannot put a hand on our heart and say that it will be used to help us should something happen.”

Romeo Dallaire says Canada should finally embrace ballistic missile defence as tensions between the U.S. and North Korea rise. (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo)

The U.S. invited Canada to join its continental missile-shield system more than a decade ago, but then-prime minister Paul Martin opted against it in 2005 following an extremely divisive national debate.

Since then, Canada has sat on the sidelines as the U.S. has spent more than $100 billion building a series of land- and sea-based interceptors that could stop the type of limited attack North Korea might launch.

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Ballistic missile defence has also been adopted by NATO allies in Europe and those in the Asia-Pacific region such as Australia and South Korea, leaving Canada as an outlier.

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